The Beginning of the Wonderful Tragedy
by Peanutpaw
Summary: A fledgling Let's Player Ruby gets contacted by a well known Let's Player. And the story's beginning is revealed. Rosewick YouTube au


more of the rosewick yt au!

this goes over how it all started

more notes at the end

* * *

Roman sighed as he walked through his apartment door, hanging up his coat. He had just come back from a slightly stressful grocery shopping trip. He looked around for his roommate, but found her nowhere in sight.

"Neo!" He called out, sliding the plastic bags off his arms, relieved by the loss of the weight and strain. He listened carefully and heard muffled laughter from the girl's room. Sighing, he stomped to her room, swinging open the door.

His friend sat at her desk, her head thrown back as she laughed heartily. On her computer screen it seemed like she was watching a video on YouTube. It seemed like a Let's Play, Roman could tell due to his own experience. He moved over, placing a hand on the back of Neo's chair, and got a better look.

He didn't know exactly what the game was, but he knew enough that it was most likely a horror game if the dimmed colors meant anything. At the top-left corner there was a cut to a girl, most likely the one who was playing. The girl had black hair with red streaks at the ends, she had a pair of red headphones with some black rose pattern on the surface over the ear. She wore a a red hoodie, her fingers toying with the frayed drawstrings as she narrated her game.

Roman reached to the computer, yanking out Neo's headphones, and the girl's voice came out. It would be a lie if he said he wasn't surprised. Her voice was high-pitched, girlish and reminiscent of a little kid. There was a lilt as she spoke nonchalantly, Neo laughing more.

"Should I be jealous that you're watching someone else, Neo?" Roman raised an eyebrow, his friend now turning to him.

' _Of course, Roman,'_ Neo signed, ' _She's much more funny than you!'_

"Well, then you don't get any of the ice cream I bought," Roman huffed, turning out and leaving the room. He smirked as he heard the chair back up, falling over, and Neo bolting out, running to the kitchen. Knowing the girl, Roman would bet his money she was whispering sweet nothings to her ice cream as she put it away in the freezer. The ginger rolled his eyes and moved over to help Neo put away the groceries.

"So, who were you watching?" Roman asked, glancing to the side to catch the girl sign.

Neo looked pensive for a moment, thinking of how to sign. She did the sign for "moon" followed by the sign for "rose". ' _That's not the actual username, but sign language is shit sometimes.'_

Roman hummed, gathering the empty plastic bags and tossing them in the box used for recycling. He left the kitchen area and sat on the couch, pulling over his laptop as Neo flopped beside him, quickly taking the computer before it got to his lap. The girl opened it, typing in Roman's password, and pulled up the internet. She typed in "CrescentRose" in the YouTube search and clicked on the user that showed up.

The first video on the page played automatically, and the girl's voice from before came out as she introduced her channel.

" _Hey there!"_ she practically chirped, saluting the camera. _"I see you've stumbled upon my humble channel! My name is Ruby and I welcome you!_

 _"Here you will find Let's Plays of mostly survival horror games, among a few other things you may find hidden in the back! I stream often and every week with my roommates in RWBY Night, so if watching four girls scream at each other in multi-player games then you can just follow the link I will provide in the description!_

 _"I hope you enjoy your stay! Or not! I'm not the judge of your life!"_ She waved again and the video ended; the screen showing a collage of pictures with annotation links.

Neo clicked on her playlists and scrolled down, selecting one and placing the laptop down while the video started, flickering into fullscreen. It started it in with the girl, Ruby, waving at the camera from the small view in the top-left corner.

" _Hello people! I'm going to be starting a Let's Play for the infamous_ Five Nights at Freddy's _! I'm pretty sure everyone and their dog knows about this game, but if you don't, I'll give a brief description!_

 _"It's basically a point-and-click survival horror game full of scare jumps so there's going to be plenty of that! I won't be moving around much, but a lot of others have played this game so I figured why not! So! Here we go!"_ The screen loaded up, the selection screen appearing and the girl smiling as she started to play.

Ruby really surprised him that she didn't seem too afraid by the scare jumps. In fact, she laughed and made comments about the appearance of the animatronics. By the end of the video, she had already played through two nights in the game in only half an hour; of course he knew there was editing done, but it was still impressive that she played through with fairly impressive skill.

Roman didn't know how long he stayed there, watching through the girl's videos, but by the time he took a break the sun had already set and Neo had gone back to her room. He hummed in thought, eventually going to her page and opening up the message page.

After sending the message, Roman went back to watching the girl's videos, starting on the weekly streams she called "RWBY Night".

.

Ruby Rose groaned as she opened her apartment door, followed by her nagging roommate. She sauntered to the couch and fell down face first, her bag dropping with a "thud" on the floor. Her roommate, Weiss, huffed as she stood looking down at her friend.

"Why is Mr Spellmeyer is mean?" Ruby groaned, kicking her feet and sitting up, giving Weiss a place to sit down. "I mean, I have stuff to do! Video games to play! I don't want to do this stupid paper!"

"Well, Ruby, that's just part of college life," Weiss stated, pulling out both of their laptops from her bag. She handed the red one to Ruby and opened up her own. The girl in white began typing on a word file, occasionally patting her friend on the shoulder in attempts to console her.

In time, Ruby gave up, opening up her own laptop and sinking in her seat as she pulled up the internet. Clicking on the tab for her email she gasped in surprise when she noticed she had a new message on YouTube.

 _From: MelodicCudgel_

 _Hello, I know it's out of the blue but I have just watched through so many of your videos that I lost track of time! I know the both of us play rather different genres, but I think it might be interesting for the two of to collaborate! The decision is up to you, I know you're probably busy with school work, but if you could respond when you get this it would be great!_

Ruby couldn't believe what she was reading. Of course she knew about MelodicCudgel, he was a very popular gamer on YouTube who had been around since the very beginning of the website's construction! And she had only been on YouTube for barely two years! It was a huge shock that someone like him would be contacting _her_. She didn't know how to respond, simply staring at her screen.

"What'cha staring at, sis?"

Ruby jumped at her sister suddenly appearing over her shoulder, hopping on the couch and peering over. The other girl grinned and snagged the laptop from her sister, clicking the link to YouTube. Ruby had barely registered her sister already typing up a response until just before she went to click "send". Alarms went off in her head and she threw herself at Yang, smacking the keyboard and jumbling up the text of her message. Unfortunately for Ruby, the send button was clicked just as she swooped up her laptop.

"Nooo! Yaaang!" Ruby whined, quickly setting the laptop on the coffee table and opening a new message to MelodicCudgel. Next to her, Yang was rolling over on the couch with laughter, Weiss sighing in annoyance and gathering her own items to retreat to her room.

.

 _From: CrescentRose_

 _omg hey there yea id love to collab lasdgets totally get down and dirty with it lol your voice is smooth like silk and your videos are totesd better than minemj/∆≥˚˙ljnkljknm ,.bjkllk;;qw784g_

Roman raised an eyebrow at the message he had received. He had opened his browser and noticed the response in his inbox almost immediately after it was sent, it seemed. It didn't look like the girl's normal attitude or speech, and he was hesitant to respond. Before he opened the page for a reply, he noticed another message in her box.

 _From: CrescentRose_

 _oh my gosh i'm so so sorry about that last message my sister took my computer from me! i tried to stop her but i think you can see what that did…but i would love to collab with you! if you want you can contact me on my skype which is the same username as this_

He smiled, typing up his response.

 _To: CrescentRose_

 _That sounds great! I will message you on Skype, then. My username is also MelodicCudgel, so you should know it's me._

.

Ruby paced in her room, sending glances at the laptop that lay on her bed. She had her computer open with Skype pulled up. True to his words, MelodicCudgel had sent her a message and friend request; but she had still yet to answer. No, she instead walked back and forth, chewing her lip in anticipation. Eventually, she flung herself on her bed, turning her head to stare at the screen, hesitantly reaching over and clicking the accept button. Almost instantly, she got a response.

 _MelodicCudgel:_ Hey there!

 _MelodicCudgel:_ Shouldn't you be doing your homework?

 _Red_ _CrescentRose:_ :( well you're messaging me!

 _MelodicCudgel:_ Well I don't have school anymore.

 _Red_ _CrescentRose:_ shush you're not the boss of me

 _Red_ _CrescentRose:_ i'm an adult

 _MelodicCudgel:_ Well you act like a child.

 _MelodicCudgel:_ Don't worry, it's endearing.

 _Red_ _CrescentRose:_ :(

 _Red_ _CrescentRose:_ so you want to collab with me?

 _MelodicCudgel:_ Indeed I do.

 _Red_ _CrescentRose:_ but why? why me?

 _MelodicCudgel:_ Because I find you interesting. Is that hard to believe?

 _Red_ _CrescentRose:_ uh duh!

 _Red_ _CrescentRose:_ you're pretty big in the youtube gaming community and i'm like a tiny name who just does silly videos with her friends

 _MelodicCudgel:_ Yet here I am, still asking you to collaborate with me.

 _Red_ _CrescentRose:_ oh man

 _Red_ _CrescentRose:_ well if you're sure

 _Red_ _CrescentRose:_ where should we start?

.

Only about a week later a collaborated video of the two was posted on both of their channels. Their video became a hit, and Ruby found herself with a large income of new subscribers. Somehow, without realizing it, the two had eventually become an integral part of the each others' channel.

Extra:

Ruby sat in her bed, back propped up with several pillows as she settled down. On her lap she had her laptop open and her Skype pulled up. Next to her, on her bedside table, she had a mug of hot chocolate, freshly heated. Today, she was finally going to have a Skype call with Roman. No—not just aSkype call—this call would be the call she would finally see the man's face.

The Skype icon jumped and she heard the ringing as a message popped up, telling her she had an incoming call. She exhaled and smiled, accepting the call. She was still not prepared for seeing her collaborator's face.

His camera quality wasn't good, well at least not as good as her, and he seemed to be sitting in a way that had his computer facing a window, giving a background of the cityscape. But she wasn't looking out his window. That wasn't important. What was important was the big reveal. And boy did Roman make it a big reveal.

The man had orange-red hair, bangs covering the right side of his face, the other side open to show a bright green eye. He was smiling widely, crinkling the edges of his eyes in mirth. Leaned back, he had his arms raised and waving above his head. When he brought his arms down he pulled a number of party poppers, one between each finger.

She laughed at his behavior, closing her eyes and cover her mouth with a sleeve-covered hand. If asked, she'd say her eyes were closed due to laughing, but the truth was she didn't want to look him in the eye.

"You really are a dork," Ruby said, leaning forward and catching the man as he laughed back.

"Well maybe I am, Red," he retorted through small laughs, "maybe I am." Ruby rolled her eyes, snorting a bit at the nickname he had given her.

"So this is the face behind in the magic, huh?"

"Yep! So, whaddya think? Are you blown away by my roguish charm?"

"Please!" She laughed, waving a hand, trying to be casual. "I'm just surprised you actually have a face. I always imagined you as a faceless, sentient void."

"I think I am much more handsome than a void!"

"Hubris, much? That'll bring you down, Torchwick."

Ruby smiled, reaching over to her table to grab her mug. She brought the drink to her mouth in her attempt to distract herself. Blowing slightly to cool it down, she put her lips against the warm cup and tilted it ever so slightly. Bringing it down, once she thought she was better, she jerked slightly as she moved to put it down when she heard Roman's laughter.

"What's so funny?"

"Your face, it, _snrk_ , you've got something on your lip, Red."

"Huh?" Ruby wiped her sleeve across her mouth, looking down at the white-chocolate foam and coughed with a blush. "Th-that, that would be the marshmallows from my hot chocolate."

"Wow, you never cease to surprise me with your childish quirks, Red."

"I'm not childish! I'm charming! Adorable! An absolute delight! Those are the words that describe me and no other!"

Roman laughed with her and she gave a sideways smile. At least things were going well.

.

At the end of the call, when they finally hung up, Ruby took in a deep inhale of breath. She harshly, yet also somehow carefully, pushed her laptop off her and onto her bed. Jumping off, she threw open her door and ran into the main room, stopping at the surprised faces of her roommates.

"So," Blake began, "how'd the call go?"

"It, it went," Ruby trailed off, squeezing her eyes shut as she felt her face grow red. Yang moved forward to look at her sister, a smirk wide on her face. Catching the blonde's look, she groaned and rubbed her hands over her face.

"He's more than a nice voice," she cried, leaning back onto the wall, "he's also hot."

The three girls on the couch burst out laughing; Yang holding her sides as her body spasmed with abandon, Weiss held a hand to her mouth daintily, and Blake chuckled as she lifted her book back up.

* * *

additional notes:

So, in this au Roman has been on YouTube basically since the beginning; he always posted videos of him playing video games ("I've been doing this since before it was cool Red!") so he's a bit of a big name in the community in this au.

Ruby, on the other hand, only started her channel when she started college. She didn't plan on being a Let's Player, originally just posting silly videos of her and videos for her class; somewhere along the way she came across Let's Play videos and decided: "Hey! I can do that! I like video games!"

Ages and occupations (in case you want to know):

Ruby - 20; junior in college; major in theatre, minor in engineering

Weiss - 21; junior in college; major in theatre, minor in business

Blake - 21; junior in college; major in veterinary technology, minor in theatre

Yang - 21; junior in college; major in engineering, minor in physical health

Roman - 25; college graduate; does YouTube full time

Neo - 24; college graduate; mooches off of Roman

In this au Neo is like an adoptive sister to Roman, she is also not mute but does use sign language because she prefers not to talk unless necessary (she also dyes her hair multicolored, its natural color is black)

If there are any other questions, just review and I'll see if I can find away to cover them later!


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